The 2013 racing season kicked off on Friday, May 17th at Delaware Speedway. The night was well attended and included feature races from the Demar Aggregates Trucks, Coca-Cola Super Stocks, and FT Garage Late Models. The night began earlier than last season, with races starting at 7:30. Children, especially seemed to appreciate this, as they were able to enjoy spending time in the pits with the racers following the the last events of the night.
Jamie Cox broke his dry spell on Friday evening with a win in the track’s top-tier FT Garage Late Model division.
Cole Powell (#25) of Mt. Brydges would break out to an early lead where he would try to pull away. Cox would make it up to second by lap five and quickly go to work trying to track down Powell. On lap eleven Cox would catch Powell and after a strong fight he managed to get to the inside and complete the pass.
Meanwhile Matt Pritiko had caught the lead trio. By the halfway point Cox had extended his lead but the battle for second was the one to watch between Powell and Pritiko.
Caution flew on lap twenty-one when Jay Christie (#5) of Beachville was hit from behind as Justin Demelo made contact with him on the front stretch. DeMelo had nowhere to go as the reason for Christie slowing as a result of an engine shutdown that caught both drivers by surprise.
On the restart Pritkio made his way up to second where he would pick up the attack on Cox for the lead repeatedly coming within inches of Cox’s back bumper. After making contact on lap nineteen Pritiko was still unable to complete the pass. Finally Pritiko got to the inside of Cox but could not keep control of the car, spinning alongside Cox in turn two and bringing out the caution on lap thirty-two.
Caution would fly twice more, on lap thirty five when Adam Quarrie (#6) of Dorchester spun after contact with Matt Pritkio who was trying to make his way back through the field. Final caution would fly on lap thirty-seven for a spin involving Tyler Hendricks (#38) of Pain Court who had been racing against Jay Doerr (#43) of London. The spin collected rookie driver Steve March (#95) of London. Cox would hang on for a convincing victory, his first-ever in a FT Garage Late Model.
“This is awesome, this has been a long time coming,” said Cox in victory lane. “When you get a dry spell it hurts your confidence. I did not want to see all those cautions, I just wanted to cruise home.”
Jamie Cox dedicated the race to his step father and Jamie Ramsay who passed away during the off season.
The championship battle kicked off in the Coca-Cola Super Stocks with Matt Robblee (#51) of Woodstock asserting himself as top contender in the division from night one with a feature win over a competitive field of drivers.
After an early caution on the fifth lap defending champion Jeff Showler (#56) of Mt. Elgin would lead the opening of the race but by lap eleven Matt Robblee had caught Showler and managed to to complete a hard-fought pass by lap fifteen. Caution would fly for the second time on lap 19 for Jason Cordingly (#5J) of Woodstock who spun in turn two.
Anticipation was high for the restart where championship rivals Robblee and Showler would go wheel to wheel. The third place driver, however, had other plans when on lap 22 Shae Gemmell (#3) of Dorchester made his move for second with Sholwer falling to third.
The third caution came on lap twenty-three when Kathleen Hosang (#16) of Zurich spun into the inside wall on the back stretch. It was not immediately clear if any other drivers were involved. On the restart Showler was able to regain second back from Gemmell with the duo making contact on the front stretch. Gemmell would be overtaken by Kenny McNicol (#17) of Exeter who went to work fighting for second with Jeff Showler. He would be unable to complete the pass settling for third place. Showler finished second with Robblee earning the victory.
Defending champion Gary Adriaensen (#55) of Belmont made the target on his back bumper even larger on Friday evening when he dominated the Demar Aggregates truck field with a convincing win in the first 25-lap feature race of the season.
Adriaensen took the lead from Trevor Collver (#51) of Lucan on the first lap of the race and never looked back. Collver would go on to finish second, Piet Blaauboer (#7) of Strathroy finished third, even after hitting the wall during the race as he pushed hard to advance his position over Collver.
Tickets are already available for next Friday’s races on May 24th. The program will include the FT Garage Late Models, Coca-Cola Super Stocks and the highly-anticipated debut of the V8 Stocks. Visit Delaware Speedway’s website for more information on upcoming events.
From: Delaware Speedway PR
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